Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Ready and waiting. Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx’s principal investigator from the University of Arizona holds a mock up of the asteroid collection device.
Image credit: Barbara David

Call it a “stone’s throw” type of spacecraft mission.

Making its way back to Earth is NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer. Yes, that’s a mega-mouthful, but word manicured to OSIRIS-REx. Now it’s called by project members as just “O-REx” for the sake of speedier repartee.

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to snare a sample from an asteroid. This spacecraft was hurled from Earth in September 2016, and in October 2020 dutifully gathered bits and pieces of space rock Bennu, an ancient rubble pile of diverse leftovers from the early days of solar system creation about 4.5 billion years ago.

Practice cleanroom session with specialists partially disassembling the OSIRIS-REx return capsule.
Image credit: Barbara David

Dugway drop zone

This mother lode of extraterrestrial freight will hot-foot its way through our atmosphere on September 24, dropping into the Department of Defense Dugway Proving Ground in the Utah Test and Training Range, roughly 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, Utah.

For details on what’s ahead, not only for the return of bits and pieces of Bennu but also rocketing to Earth Mars samples, go to my new Scientific American story – “This Is How the First-Ever U.S. Asteroid Sample Return Will Unfold – Scientists are gearing up for a high-stakes finale to OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to snare a sample from an asteroid” – at:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-is-how-the-first-ever-u-s-asteroid-sample-return-will-unfold/